A King Was Crowned; This Week In Puro

Added 09/12/2018 by Luke Hickey

It was on the 2nd of October when PAC shocked the wrestling world when he returned to Dragon Gate, after over a year out following a dispute with his former employers, the WWE. For those that were unaware of PAC, this amounted to quite a shock, New Japan or Ring of Honor perhaps being the preferred destination for The Man That Gravity Forgot, PAC the man may have been born in England, but PAC the wrestler was born in Dragon Gate.

PAC, immediately joined up with the heel unit, R.E.D, tagging with Eita to face BxB Hulk & Shingo Takagi, with PAC getting the win on his return to the company he left 6 years ago. This was a different person to the boy they once knew, as he told the Korakuen crowd, stunned and elated at his return, he then called out the figureheads of the company, Yoshino, Doi, YAMATO etc and said he was coming for them, Dragon Gate belonged to R.E.D.

PAC would notably team with various constellations of R.E.D in various multi-man matches, losing only 6 of the 25 matches he has been involved in since his return, winning both of his singles matches, the first, an international special singles match against Flamita. But, it was his second singles victory that proved to be the most newsworthy. On the 4th of December, PAC faced Masato Yoshino for the Open the Dream Gate Championship, at the time, the only Dragon Gate title that had eluded him during his first stint with the company.

Masato Yoshino was given the task of being champion in a turbulent shift in the company, following the Shanghai split and Okamura stepping away. It would be a task needed of Yoshino, an icon within the company, to steady the company to allow it to find its footing once again, but he did a great job in his 177 day reign. But PAC brought new eyes to the promotion, Yoshino had done his job and done it exceptionally well, forever grateful to the Speed Star but it would be PAC who can elevate it and the company in the year to come.

PAC, being the antagonist heel in all of this, will allow the company to build up their future face with Yoshino and BxB Hulk likely on their last legs, PAC’s role in this will be important, maybe as if not more so than Yoshino and steadying the ship. Dragon Gate needs its youths to rise into the main event picture, Kzy, Ben-K, Eita, Big R are all their near the upper echelons of the card but they need that bit extra, PAC can help 3 of them in the background in the R.E.D unit but there will come a time when he needs to be an extra bastard to get the crowd to believe even more in Kzy.

He will likely make a run through of some of the old guard before Dragon Gate put Kzy in that position, YAMATO, BxB Hulk, Yoshino and Doi will be likely challengers in the early stages should this be a long reign, but it will be more important to the future of Dragon Gate if it’ll be the one of the future stars to dethrone him.

-Big Japan: Hama & Nakanoue successfully defended the BJW Tag Team titles against Strong BJ with Hama pinning Okabayashi. Hama later challenged Sekimoto for the BJW Strong title. The match will take place in January.

-New Japan: SANADA & EVIL defeated G.O.D in the finals today, Will Ospreay beat Taichi to be the next contender for the NEVER Openweight Championship, Goto lost his NEVER Openweight to Kota Ibushi on the same show. Young Bucks came out to confront both SANADA & EVIL and G.O.D and interject themselves, unsurprisingly into the title picture.